CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The first burger ever produced by The Seafood Shack is a winner.
The Morell business was named P.E.I. Burger Love champion in a web broadcast on May 7. Prior to this year’s campaign, it didn’t even have a beef burger on the menu.
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Danielle Casario, the owner, said it feels like it is all a dream.
“I can’t believe that we did it,” Danielle Casario told SaltWire by phone on May 8. “My phone has been blowing up since it was announced. It hasn’t stopped.”
Casario said she could not believe her eyes when the name of the business flashed on the screen.
“I wasn’t even going to watch the live stream because there was no way we were going to win and then it came up, The Seafood Shack, and we screamed and jumped and cried.”
Money for Anderson House
P.E.I. Family Violence Prevention Services ran P.E.I. Burger Love this year for the first time, raising a record $90,679. It will go to benefit Anderson House, a provincial emergency shelter for women, trans and non-binary individuals and their children who are in need of safety because of violence in their lives. Prior to 2024, the most money raised by a single campaign was $86,000.
People who ate the burgers during the month of April were asked to go online and vote for their favourite and that is how the winner was chosen.
For the first time, the 90 participating restaurants did not have to pay anything to enter, but they did have to donate $1 from every burger sold to the campaign.
“This is huge,” Danya O’Malley, executive director of the organization, told SaltWire on May 8. “It’s a really nice piece of our total budget.”
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The organization has received money from the P.E.I. Burger Love campaign on three separate occasions prior to 2024 for a total of $174,000.
“It really was a smashing success when you consider the pressures that people are under and the cost of everything,” O’Malley said, adding people need to consider that burgers cost 25-30 per cent more to produce this year and the price of gas may have kept some people from travelling to participating restaurants.
Choice to enter
Casario only entered P.E.I. Burger Love at the insistence of her manager and best friend, Donna McCarthy.
“Normally, I would open in mid-June. She talked me into opening for Burger Love,” Casario said. “I thought she was crazy. We don’t do burgers, we don’t even know how to do burgers, but she said we can come up with something.”
The grill at the restaurant was not even working until a week before the campaign was scheduled to begin April 1. So, they went over to McCarthy’s house and practised.
It turned out that all the practising created a champion – with ingredients that included two three-ounce P.E.I. beef smash patties, Island whiskey cheddar, Havarti, candied pork belly, house-made salt and pepper micro frites, garlic aioli, sweet and sour barbecue sauce, lettuce and pickled red onion, served with a signature lobster wonton.
“I took the burgers home for 21 days straight and I gained 10 pounds and literally had to stop myself from doing it,” Casario said. “I could not do it without my team. We are rock solid.”
Restaurants
O’Malley said she loves the fact that proceeds go to Anderson House but also appreciates the fact that this campaign breathes life into the restaurant industry.
“That’s a tough, tough industry. When I was talking to Danielle last night at The Seafood Shack, smaller places like that, this is an unimaginable month of revenue,” O’Malley said. “They put a burger together and they all tried it and they said, ‘let’s do this,’ and it won. She said they would have sold more if they had more staff. They only had three staff.”
The Seafood Shack is now the only restaurant in P.E.I. that can promote its creation as a P.E.I. Burger Love burger, and it will remain on the menu.
O’Malley said her team learned a lot this year and will apply it to bring the campaign back next year.
Did you know?
- The winning burger in this year’s Burger Love is called the Shack Attack
- The Seafood Shack is located at 7621 St. Peters Rd., Morell
- The Seafood Shack is on Instagram
Past champions include
- Backwoods Burger, 2022;
- Holy Cow and Holy Cow Food Truck, 2021;
- Row House Steak and Lobster Co., 2020;
- Phinley’s Diner and Dairy Bar, 2019;
- The Pilot House, 2018;
- Mill River Experience, 2017;
- Brickhouse Kitchen and Bar, 2016;
- The Home Place, 2015;
- Sim’s Corner, 2014;
- Phinley’s Diner, 2013.
Dave Stewart is a reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached by email at dave.stewart@theguardian.pe.ca and followed on X @DveStewart.
